Joseph Gordon-Levitt Confirms He is a “Male Feminist”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has no problem calling himself a feminist. During an interview with the Daily Beast on August 14, the actor opened about his views on feminism and what he thinks it means.

“What that means to me is that you don’t let your gender define who you are—you can be who you want to be, whether you’re a man, a woman, a boy, a girl, whatever,” the 33-year-old actor stated.

“However you want to define yourself, you can do that and should be able to do that, and no category ever really describes a person because every person is unique. That, to me, is what “feminism” means.”

“So yes, I’d absolutely call myself a feminist,” Levitt confirmed.

The ever so passionate actor continued, stating his reasons why feminism is good for society.

“And if you look at history, women are an oppressed category of people. There’s a long, long history of women suffering abuse, injustice, and not having the same opportunities as men, and I think that’s been very detrimental to the human race as a whole. I’m a believer that if everyone has a fair chance to be what they want to be and do what they want to do, it’s better for everyone. It benefits society as a whole.”

Levitt before has stated his support of feminism and referred to himself as a male feminist during an interview on The Ellen Show to promote his film, “Don Jon”.

It was here that Levitt credited his parents, especially his mother for teaching him and his brother about the history of feminism and what it’s all about.

“That was something that my mom would always point out to my brother and me, that our culture does often portray women especially… like objects,” Levitt told Ellen.

The actor continued, giving an example of the Lakers and its cheerleaders.

‘Okay, so look, here’s the story that gets told: The men get to be the heroic skilled athletes and the women just get to be pretty.’ She didn’t mean any offense to any individual woman who was working as a cheerleader, but she wanted me and my brother to be aware of it because we see these images on TV, in the movies, and on magazines all the time. And if you don’t stop and think about it, it just sort of seeps into your brain and that becomes the way you perceive reality.”